Generations of wise financial advisers have warned experienced and novice investors alike against making decisions based on guesses regarding what the market will do today or tomorrow. You’ll get better results, they suggest, by adopting a long-term investment strategy and sticking with it through good economic times and bad.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that this is precisely the approach pursued by many of the 100 winners of the sixth annual Progressive Manufacturing Awards. Rather than launching technology-based transformational initiatives when times are flush only to back off in the face of economic uncertainty, 2010 PM100 winners, such as Dole Foods, Freescale Semiconductor, and Volvo Construction Equipment, have made unwavering, long-term bets on strategic transformation. And, as you’ll read in the profiles on the following pages, those bets are paying off handsomely.